by Naomi West
She lifted a shoulder. “I’ve always been good at reading people. I wouldn’t survive as a PI if I wasn’t. You don’t have to try to play it off and act tough around me.”
He sat and bounced Damian on his knee. “You think that’s what I’m doing? Sitting her, playing with a baby, acting tough? What does your boyfriend think of you being here like this with me?”
“Don’t have one. I’m single.”
“And what about your family? They nearby?”
“What’s with the twenty questions tonight?” she asked.
“I realized that you’re staying here with my baby all day and I don’t really know much about you.”
“Well, I have family. My sister lives a few hours away. My parents live near her.”
“You moved away from your family?”
She shook her head. “They moved away from me. My sister got married and moved for his work, then had a baby. My parents wanted to be closer to their grandchild.”
“So, they all abandoned you?”
“Pretty much.” She sighed. “Sometimes it really sucks. I get lonely. I miss them. I can only go visit so often, you now? It’s nice to have blood close by.”
“It is.” Hugh used to live just a few minutes away, in the city. They saw each other all the time. They only had each other since their mom died. He felt the ache in his chest flare up when he thought about Hugh. He squashed it down and went on. “You have any kind of background check or clearances? Figured I should have that if you’re going to be watching Damian.”
“Right. That makes sense. I had all that done in school. I can probably find a copy if you want.”
“That would be cool.”
He stood and went to his office to get his checkbook, then returned to the living room. He handed Damian to her. “I’m going to write you a check for yesterday, today, and the rest of this week.” He filled it out and paused when he got to the name spot. “What’s your last name?”
“Oh, actually, make it out to Caitlyn James.”
He gave her a suspicious look.
“That’s my legal name. I go by my middle name.”
“Okay.” Could be the truth. But that was unusual. Why wouldn’t she have mentioned it as soon as he started writing the check? He wrote the check and tore it off, then gave it to her.
“Thanks.”
He took the checkbook back to his office and stopped to send a quick email to a guy in his MC who had access to certain databases. “Can you look up Caitlyn James for me?”
He closed his laptop and walked out of the office, turning right down the hall to head to the bathroom. As he turned, Alexa came out of Damian’s room. They passed each other in close proximity. He could feel the heat coming off her.
“He fell asleep. I put him in his crib,” she said.
Hawk took a deep breath and stared into her eyes. He wanted to believe everything she was saying. She didn’t look away from him. That was a good sign.
But as he kept looking at her, something shifted in the air around them. He felt himself leaning toward her as she leaned toward him. Clearing his throat, he stepped back.
“Thanks,” he said and ducked into the bathroom.
Chapter 8
After their near-kiss, Hawk went to the bathroom and made a decision. He’d come home early, so she should be able to stay a while. He went out to the living room, where she was sitting on the couch.
“Hey, can you stay? I need to head over to my MC headquarters for a while.”
“Sure. I planned on being here for a few more hours anyway.”
“Perfect. See ya.” He grabbed his keys and headed out to the garage without looking back.
He hopped on his bike, letting the motor roar to life between his legs before he pressed on the gas and took off. The wind in his hair felt good. This was what he needed. To escape for a while, to get out onto the open road, feel the air, breathe in something besides baby food, dirty diapers, or car smells for a while.
He pulled up to the Kings’ headquarters with excitement flooding over him. He always felt like he was coming home when he showed up here. They were the closest thing to family he had besides Damian.
“Hawk!” shouts came from across the large, open room as he walked in the door. Several members greeted him with a slap on the shoulder or back.
“Where you been, man?” Blade asked. “Stuck in baby land?”
“Something like that. Working,” Hawk said.
“We’re just about to break,” Dugout said. “Get over here and grab a cue, man.”
Hawk gratefully picked up a pool cue and played a few games with the guys. He drank a few beers and bullshitted, but after a few hours he needed to refocus.
“Where the old ladies at?” he asked Dugout.
He nodded toward the kitchen and dining room. This was where they usually all hung out. Sometimes kids were in there, running around. When it wasn’t meal time, it was a play zone and women’s club. They did all sorts of girly things in there like painting their nails, doing one another’s makeup. Stuff the men had no interest in or clue about.
Hawk pushed through the door and the women looked at him. Several waved or called out a greeting.
“Hey ladies, I need your help.” He perched a foot on one of the table’s benches. “I need a new babysitter.”
“What happened to Natalie?” Jessica, Blade’s wife asked.
“Ahh, well, she wanted a little more than just my business, you know what I mean?”
She winked back. “Don’t blame her.”
“You need someone for nights or days?” Sandra asked. She was Dugouts’s old lady and had helped Hawk out on more than one occasion when he had a question or needed a woman’s opinion.
“Both. I need full-time, someone flexible enough to take most of the day, but part of the evening when I need it. Some overnights.”
Sandra blew out a whistle. “Good luck finding that. What you need is a wife, not a babysitter.”
“But you’re all taken,” he said.
“Honey, you want to be hooked up?” Jessica asked. “I know a real nice girl.”
“Who?” Sandra asked. “Not that skank Melanie.”
“God, no. Her name is Samantha and she’s real cute. Works over at the courthouse. Real convenient for someone like you, when you need something.”
“Thanks, but I really just need someone to watch Damian. Starting immediately,” Hawk said. “No time for romance.” Besides, he needed to figure out this whole Alexa thing anyway. If his feelings for her turned into something he wanted a clear conscience.
“Sorry,” Jessica said. “You know that we’re either home or here all day. And when Blade decides it’s time to go, we go.”
“Same here,” Sandra said, bouncing her youngest baby on her knee. “If you drop him off here, I’m sure one of us could keep an eye on him.”
That worked on occasion in a pinch, but not as a long term solution. He needed someone reliable and steady, not just whoever happened to be around, if anyone was around. And in the middle of the night, the place was usually empty, aside from the occasional King.
Hawk looked to the other ladies, who each gave him a regretful look as they told him they didn’t know anyone.
“Try that Craigslist online,” Sandra said. “I know people find stuff on there all the time.”
“Yeah, maybe. Thanks, ladies.” Hawk walked back into the main room.
He played a round of cards until his phone rang. He pulled it out, thinking at first it might be Alexa needing him but it was Jared.
“You working, man?” Jared asked. “I got a job I need your expertise on.”
“When?”
“Now. I’m at this job that’s packed in tight. I can’t move the other cars, but I thought maybe together we could figure something out.”
In other words, Jared wanted him to break into one of the other cars to move it out of the way so he could get whatever car he was trying to pick up. Sometimes people thought they
were slick and parked their soon-to-be-repo-ed cars in a tight place to limit tow truck access. Sometimes Hawk was able to drive them out, but a few times he and Jared had come up with alternative methods. Most times he could get into a car, move it, let Jared take out his job, and then put the first car back and relock it without anyone ever knowing he’d touched it.
Hawk looked at his phone. It was getting into the evening. Past the time that Alexa probably planned to stay. “Let me make one call. I’ll text you.”
He dialed Alexa’s number. “Hey, I just got a call for a job. Can you stay another hour or so?”
“Sure, that’s fine.”
“Thanks.” He hung up and texted Jared to send him the address.
Chapter 9
Alexa hung up and looked at Damian with a smile. “Daddy’s going to be late,” she murmured. She pulled her eyebrows together. Did Hawk consider himself a father to Damian or was he simply ‘Uncle Hawk? She wondered if Damian was even old enough yet to know the distinction.
She had done a little searching through the kitchen while he took his nap, but without knowing how long Hawk was going to be gone, she’d hadn’t gone too deep. Now that she knew for sure she’d have at least an hour, she stuck Damian on her hip and headed to the office.
When she walked through the hall, she thought about their weird moment earlier. Had they really almost kissed? It made her heart race all over again just thinking about it. She’d wanted to kiss him. She’d wanted him to kiss her. None of it made any sense to her. Was he feeling the same tension she was? Did he want her, too? Regardless, her emotions were running contrary to common sense, and she patted her cheeks.
She was here for a reason. She recalled her conversation with her sister the night before and her stern warning not to get feelings for Hawk. It’d been too late then, and now, after that moment, she didn’t know if she could stay as disconnected as she needed to be. The thought haunted her.
Hawk was a proven criminal even if he had had zero part in Hugh’s death. He’d stolen cars and other things, gotten into fights, and been in possession of illegal weapons. When she’d mentioned weapons to him earlier, it’d been something of a test. Hawk was still on probation. He wasn’t allowed near guns and could only handle knives that were used for cooking. If she found something like that in his house he could go back to jail. She hadn’t found anything he shouldn’t have. Yet, she reminder herself.
Damian gurgled happily and wiggled on her hip as she looked through papers in the office. She bounced him around a little, but she didn’t want to put him down in case he got into something he shouldn’t. It would be difficult to explain why an important paper had been chewed on without fessing up that she’d been in the office where she had no reason to be. Her close call with him earlier was enough to put him on alert and she didn’t want him being suspicious of her.
She thought her cover was pretty decent. He had barged into the house making a lot of noise, and hadn’t called out to her until he was already inside. She had jumped and panicked, so that part wasn’t even a lie. But obviously, she hadn’t been in there hiding from a threat, she been searching for one. And she had her own gun for protection if someone broke in. She might have put Damian somewhere safe, but she would never hide from an intruder like that. That was something people without weapons and training did, not something a former cop did.
Damian started to close his eyes longer and longer with each blink. This was perfect timing. She hurried off to lay him in his crib and after making sure he was falling back asleep, she returned to the office. She would still have a solid half hour to go through things before Hawk came home. And from where the office was located in front of the house, she’d hear his bike and see him before he came inside.
She went through all of the papers in his desk, looking for signs of faked books or anything that might point to illegal activity in his business. She looked for anything related to Hugh or Damian or the murder. By the time she’d gone through it all, she had to conclude that either his business really was legitimate, or he was hiding something somewhere else. She glanced at his computer. Tomorrow she’d go through the files he had there.
Still, he appeared to be holding up his end of the deal when it came to probation and his plea bargain. The one major charge that she tried her best to ignore was the reason he was on probation now after so many years. He’d been charged with manslaughter and served a few years. Not long enough for most manslaughter sentences, and then he’d gotten a plea deal.
She needed to get information, and she had a friend in the force pulling records for her, but all she knew was that the death he’d been charged with had been labeled accidental. But the fact that it was his own father made her suspicious. He had plenty of motive to kill him. What new evidence could have come up, or what else could have changed in order to get him out of jail and onto probation for something like that?
There was more to the story, for sure. When she got the official records, and with some internet searching, she should be able to get more information. And when the time was right, she could ask Hawk about it and see what he said. It seemed a little too convenient, though, that he’d gotten out like that. Made her think that he knew someone or that he’d been part of something bigger.
Chapter 10
After several days of coming home to Alexa, Hawk was starting to get used to her being around. She was becoming part of the routine, part of his everyday life. He’d been able to rely on her whenever something came up, and she’d been there for him. If he had to work late, she stayed. She even spent the night so he could do a few harder jobs. That was a huge plus. And if he was being honest, he wasn’t trying too hard to find a new babysitter anymore. He wanted her to be the one to watch Damian. He wanted her to be there in his house when he got home after a hard day of work.
Damian seemed to also be growing attached to her. Of course, he was just a baby and was happy to be with anyone who fed him and gave him clean diapers. It was important that he was happy with her. He liked seeing Damian reach for her when she came in the door and that he was happy and content when he came home at night. Though Damian seemed fine going to Natalie’s when he used to go there every day, he never seemed so excited to see her as he did Alexa. Why in the world would Damian want to give that up to have some other babysitter caring for him?
Damian wasn’t the only one who got excited over seeing Alexa, though. No matter how he tried to push the feelings down, there was a little flutter in Hawk’s heart when she rang the bell or he came home and saw her. The more time he spent with her, the more time he wanted to be in her company. He didn’t need a relationship right now in his life. It would only complicate things, especially if she was watching Damian. What if something happened between them and she decided she couldn’t watch him anymore? Then he’d be right back where he was with no sitter. And right now, the whole babysitter arrangement was perfect.
Yet, he couldn’t deny that she made him laugh. So many times, she’d sing a goofy song to Damian and make faces and have him cracking up. She was smart, too. She always noticed little things, like when he moved the dish he kept his keys in or the one time he swiped out the microwave. She was highly observant like that. She knew if he had a bad day when he walked in the door, or if Damian hadn’t slept well the night before. She hadn’t even been around them very long, yet she could read them easily. More times than he could count he’d come home after a hard day and within minutes she’d made him feel better.
Not only were his feelings building, but so was the sexual tension. After that first time in the hallway when they’d nearly kissed, there had been a few more encounters like that. One time she handed Damian to him and leaned in as she did. He almost kissed her then. Another time he’d reached over and put his face much too close to hers. Every time, he’d turned as soon as he realized what was happening. But it seemed to take longer and longer each time.
He tried not to look at her body too long. If he wasn’t aching to kiss her, he
was surely aching to do more. His dick would harden at the sight of her tight jeans or fitted top. He wanted to reach out and grab her. At night, he dreamt about the things he would do to her if he had the chance. He wasn’t sure how much more of this he could take. One of these days he was going to kiss her and not be able to stop. And there would be no going back after that.
He’d tried to think it all through. What would happen if they hooked up? Could they just go on like that? Put Damian to bed, then go hook up? She would probably want some sort of relationship, and he’d never been good at that. He needed to let her know, if something did happen, that it couldn’t go too far. He couldn’t be expected to be her boyfriend. To do things like go out on dates or meet her family just wasn’t his style.
